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America and Socialism

It has never ceased to amaze me when citizens of America complain about socialist nations. “We Capitalists brought down the Soviet Union…the greatest socialistic demagogue in history.”

This statement is simply untrue. The Soviet Union collapsed from within through bad management, bad production, poor communication (that is too much secrecy between government and the people), small wars, apathy and a weak ruble. Yes, the competitions of the arms and space races with the United States were part of the puzzle, but isn’t America suffering from bad management during the course of the last 2 decades? How about the present strength of the dollar? Is America in an expensive small war(s)? Aren’t those who don’t learn from the past doomed to repeat catastrophic events? Hmmm, let’s think about that?

America has firemen, policemen, social security, labor unions, welfare and medicare. Are not each and every one of these organizations part of a socialized scheme…ummm, a very real capitalistic socialism?

In the excerpt below an analyst is quoted after the fall of the Soviet Union.

“What has been learned? Perhaps the best analysis is that of Joe Slovo, writing from the standpoint of the South African Communist Party which played a leading role in the revolutionary victory over apartheid. In his famous 1989 article, Slovo argues that socialism itself has not failed, but that it must develop a real democracy, including for “all citizens the basic rights and freedoms of organisation, speech, thought, press, movement, residence, conscience and religion; full trade union rights for all workers including the right to strike, and one person one vote in free and democratic elections.” To this list one needs to add the free flow of honest information. These are all basic principles of a culture of peace and are incompatible with a culture of war.”

These are socialist writers analyzing the collapse of socialism. Are the answers to curing the ills of the Soviet failures not the same answers for curing the soon-coming and present ills of American capitalism? The Soviets built an industrial military complex that couldn’t sustain itself. Does the United States of America not have an industrial military structure that can no longer be sustained by the American taxpayer? NASA is becoming more privatized in this decade. The military budget of the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan…1.05 Trillion dollars…go to http://www.nationalpriorities.org/costofwar_home to see these numbers rising.

Last night I watched an Arizonan senator accuse a U. S. president of having “divided loyalties” because the senator didn’t believe that Barak Obama was born in Hawaii. The senator claimed he couldn’t believe anything that he saw through the worldwide web, ergo…Barak Obama is from Kenya.

What the hell is that?

Stupid, on top of blind…added to dumb with dumberer? Weren’t the credentials of the world’s “most powerful man on the planet” checked out before he even began to run for the highest office in the land? I think so. What point am I trying to make here? Now we’re seeing poor communication between government and the people in America. I could go on…but I won’t.

So with a rising national debt, poor communication, a shrinking dollar, mismanagement of governmental representatives (oathed to office to do “for the people”) and poor production/services becoming ever more prevalent in America’s present reality are we about to see a collapse of capitalism that will certainly be as dramatic, if not more so, as the Soviet Union’s collapse…and for the same reasons? You can answer that and vocalize your opinions.

Recently New Yorker editor David Remnick wrote a biography of America’s not white enough…not black enough president, Barak Obama. The book is entitled The Bridge. I would offer up a hope that America’s present leader can bridge the apparent gap of polar extremes between the left-wing Democrats and right-wing Republicans. America’s push for success must start first with a culture of peace requiring that each side move to the center of the cube and start pushing towards a direction that they both can agree upon.

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3 Responses to “America and Socialism”

Good Posting. The term “socialist/socialism” is used to generate fear and bully others in political discussions to the point it has become almost worthless as a term.

I believe the worst is still to come with regards to the fall out of the global financial crisis. As much as I’d like to blame the conservatives for it, conservative and liberal governments around the world all made the same mistakes that led to the gfc. I think people like greenspan and bernanke need to be taken to task more for their failure to prevent such a disaster.

Read an interesting book, the next 100 years by Friedman. In there he predicts the best years are yet ahead for the U.S., I agree. While in a lot of trouble at the moment, and possibly worst trouble in the short term future, there is still a lot of greatness ahead. But then I’m quite biased in favor of the U.S.